The annual Short Story Competition is judged this year by Ingrid Jendrzejewski who has given us a presentation in May, 2018.

Ingrid received a BFA in Creative Writing and a BA in English literature and has since won 11 writing competitions, judged three short-story contests, had around 100 pieces published, and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Vestal’s VERA Award, and twice for Best Small Fictions.

All writers seek to convey a message, a story or a feeling through their work, but writers of prose and poetry often work in very different ways. As a result of this, many people believe that the two types of writing are polar opposites, and so different as to appear almost incompatible. But this is simply not the case. There is a huge amount of overlap between poetry and prose, and the lessons that poets can take from novelists, and that novelists can learn from poets, should not be underestimated. Join poet and writer Leanne Moden for a talk about the links between poetry and prose.

Leanne Moden is a poet and performer from Norfolk, now living in Nottingham in the East Midlands. She has performed at events across Europe, including recent sets at Prima Vista Festival in Estonia and Día Mundial de la Poesía in Spain as well as festivals in the UK including WOMAD, Edinburgh Fringe, TEDx UCL WOMEN at University college London, and Bestival on the Isle of Wight. Leanne is currently Poet in Residence at the National Justice Museum in Nottingham, and she runs the Crosswords Spoken Word Collective in Nottingham.

This is a members-only competition.

A few rules to make this a successful event:

1. Stories must be no longer than 250 words. They must have a title, which is not part of the word count.
2. Bring a printed copy of your story to the evening. It must not bear your name.
3. Stories will be read by one of two readers without identifying the authors.
4. Prizes will consist of boxes of chocolates.
5. Those present will vote to determine the first, second and third winners.
6. You are honour bound not to vote for your own entry.
7. Anybody coming after readings have commenced may submit their entry, but may not vote.

Hannah Hooton will give the presentation "Interactive Storytelling: The Art of Reader Engagement", which explores different creative writing techniques that help to give our readers a more personal and immersive experience with heightened emotional impact.

This workshop is for debating the idea of whether an exciting story is better or worse than a stylistically strong story – or whether they are equally important? 

Amanda Hall is an award-winning illustrator, renowned for her wonderfully decorative and colourful children’s book illustrations. She excels at capturing the visual worlds of different cultures, their peoples, animals and landscapes as well as their spiritual traditions.

Amanda will give us an introduction into the art of illustration and talk about her latest book, 'Out of this World', is the fascinating story of Leonora Carrington, a girl who made art out of her imagination and created some of the most enigmatic and startling works of the last eighty years.

Jane Woodrow is a local writer, writing for TV, eg, In Suspicious Circumstances, The Bill, The Thieving Headmistress etc.  Also she is a criminologist and crime author appearing on news programmes, documentaries and factual dramas about serial killers. Her books "Rose West: the Making of a Monster" and "After Evil" - telling the true story of a 17-year old whose mum was murdered by the Yorkshire Ripper - are published by Hodder & Stoughton. Her thriller "Between Two Worlds: a Detective Hoban Novel" won an honorary award at the San Francisco book festival. Jane was educated at London  and Cambridge Universities, where she became a research fellow and associate. She has just completed her fourth book on crime.